My Ten Favorite Bloggers

Boardwalk Afternoon- 9x12-SOLD

it was cloudy today. we're having tropical storm christobal rainbands all day so not a good day to shoot a photo of new work. so i offer you this one (from a month or so ago) that just recently sold in Atlantic Beach at my gallery called Vision Gallery right off the MHC/AB causeway. go see them when youre around that area. she has a nice mix of work and prices.

now for my TEN FAVORITE BLOGS LIST (these are not in order)
1. http://frankgardner.blogspot.com/
2.http://wheezard.blogspot.com/
3.http://www.greavesart.blogspot.com/
4.http://cooperdragonette.blogspot.com/
5.http://robincheers.blogspot.com/
6.http://davidlobenberg.blogspot.com/
7.http://bernierosage.blogspot.com/
8.http://www.kerrisettle.blogspot.com/
9.http://www.dailyartwest.com/
10.http://dailypaintingpractice.blogspot.com/

looking at blogs is a way to keep from getting tunnelvision. you look at other styles, other regions of the country and you learn alot keeping up with this cast of characters. many i have come to know and like alot even emailing about pertinent topics and i always end up learning something valuable.
so try checking out these bloggers. i guarantee you'll benefit greatly. i know i have!

Downtown in greenville

this is a favorite little eatin' joint in downtown greenville called cubbies. liked the light on the sidewalk and the purple shadows on the buildings. nice little split complement - purple and orange. used lots of juicy paint on this one. i'm really making headway in getting away from my previous thin, thin paint application. now i load on the paint on the light shapes. thats why we use oil paints isnt it?
check out the little white arrow on the street. it points back into the picture. i love it when a plan comes together (quote -from the show "the A-Team")

Cubbies on 5th and Evans- 9x12

going to the City Art show in a week or two

Those were the days....

this old place is twenty miles from anywhere. would have loved to see what gas sold for back then. the paint was chunky so i put some on the roof for effect. this is the front of the building in yesterdays post.
painted in raleigh today. will post a downtown skyline and the old hayes barton pharmacy in the five points area on glenwood avenue, tomorrow

aptly called Buck a Gallon- 9x12

will be in the City Art show

a few from the last few days

havent posted in a few days but not because i'm not painting. in fact did this and two others today and a 24x30 and 8x10 yesterday. wow!
certain towns i'm in dont have good broadband reception and postings a real hassle when the connection drops every 2 min.
maybe i can upload this before it disconnects

Long and Winding Road- 12x16

dont know if this will be in the ArtSource show in Sept. or the City Art show in a few weeks. email me if you want to purchase it beforehand

Flip Side of Yesterdays Post

went to the same spot to paint as yesterday, when i saw it was so foggy this morning. its cool to roll down to yesterdays post to see what a difference a day makes as far as lighting effect, atmoshere, and values and colors.

dont forget to keep checking by here to enter my free painting giveaway. even the shipping is free.

Foggy Start- 9x12

will be at the city art show starting the first week of august. come check it out if youre in greenville in august

Dreamy Atmosphere Today

there was something dreamy about the light today. soft and diffused, full of moisture. it shows on this where i reserved the sharper edges for in the foreground and as the scene goes back i softened edges and added the sky color to shapes to make them atmospheric.

Parking Available- 9x12

will be in the City Art Gallery show in August

A few from the Weekend

spent the day yesterday painting on bald head island. you cant drive cars on this small barrier island just a mile from southport nc. took a bicycle all over the island and found this bluff up high to paint from. loved the way the roofs were shining against the blue-green sea. everything i painted with was in my bookback on my back. felt like my hero Charles Sovek as he peddled around provincetown!

come to think of it... i must have been channeling him. this piece looks kinda like a Sovek.

From Flora's Bluff-6x8


did this little ditty in about half an hour and the guy was nice enough to stay in one place after he got up and came over to see what i was doing. thanks dude!

Relax- 6x8

here's the companion piece of "the South End". place had ten times this many people so i edited them out to a few boats and a few sunbathers.

Water Access (South End)- 12x24

Rain Rain Go Away

Raining off and on again for the third day in a row. an outdoor painters nightmare! especially when i have another show in a few weeks. it'll all work out tho'!
so heres another gallery goer for the series.

Room Full of Treasures- 6x8

Gallery Goers

there was a really great article written about yours truly in the Wilmington Star-News recently. Click here to read it

below are more in my "gallery goers" series. they are selling very well and i love to paint people looking at art. like one of my gallery owners said " its like the buyer gets two paintings. the painting itself and the paintings in the painting"

Enjoying Sorolla- 8x10

this woman is very studious of the Sorolla called "Beach Promenade"

Exchanging Glances- 8x10

these two are looking at a california artist named Tofanelli. i like his stuff. its simple shapes and colorful. the gallery goers seem to like him too. they seem to be "exchanging glances"

these two will be at Tidewater Gallery in Swansboro. you can call them or email me if you'd like to purchase.

And the Winner is.....

Rachel in Clarksdale Mississippi. way to go! youre the winner of the free painting giveaway.
if you didnt win, keep checking back. i do it every month.

Electric Clouds- 8x6- on canvas board

holiday weekend and errands for upcoming shows etc. have slowed the painting output. tomorrow hopefully i'll be back on track. i need to de-stress and whats better than standing on the beach or intracoastal waterway, or boat dock painting for several hours. and then you jump in the water to cool off and call it a day.

Tucked Away-9x12-SOLD

i've got a new way of getting the subject framed and on the canvas that i think you other painters might enjoy hearing about.

i took a piece of clear plexiglass and drew a 4"x5" square (for 8x10)and a 4.5"x6" square (9x12) on with a sharpie. got two grease pencils (white and black) and a piece of blue plexiglass about 3" square.

find your subject and move the 8x10 or 9x12 square back and forth cropping the scene to find the most pleasing composition. hold it still and draw the big angles with either the white or black grease pencil.
then transfer the composition to the panel youre getting ready to paint. no weird amputations, no stuff running off the canvas, and most of all (my biggest problem before using this new method) no oversized subjects. now everything has the right amount of "air" around the subject!

i then draw it on with a red carpenters pencil and rub real hard to smear it all over the white canvas toning it a nice warm red and then i take the home color of the shape and wash it on the shape with lots of thinner. once this is done i start using thicker and more realistic colors in thicker paint.

look thru the blue plexiglass to average your shapes values- extra light, light, med, dark and extra dark.

my compositions are now stronger and easier to get down in the few minutes it should take to get down the basics on the canvas board.

hope you try it and tell me what you think on comments below.

The contest entry is over at midnite tonite. i'll announce the winner soon! happy 4th!

Last Day to Enter Free Painting Giveaway

see the post from two days ago to see how to enter the giveaway!

these were done in the last few days for my City Art Gallery two man show in August with James Kerr. google his name and check out his work. very sweeet! come see the show!

Intercoastal Moorings- 8x20

sold

Late Afternoon at the Docks- 8x10 SOLD

Lumina Awnings- 10x8

sold

Sky Ablaze- 6x8 SOLD

Today is Free Painting Give-Away Day!

The South End- 12x24- at Tidewater Gallery in Swansboro

today you can enter the free painting giveaway! see yesterdays post if you dont know how.

finger quit throbbing today so maybe its not broken, so i went down to the inlet and painted this little ditty.
its not my painting hand but screwed with my concentration yesterday and i only did a 6x8 at sunset. i cant go all day without painting, injured or no!
couldnt ask for better cloud formations today for this one, and they werent racing across the sky like they so often do, making them very difficult to paint

Today is Free Painting Give-Away Day!

(about 15 feet up in the air)

Well, my kiteboarding passion has reared its dangerous head. i may have broken my left ring finger (altho it could be a very nasty sprain) and its swelled up and tender to the touch. totally sapped all desire to paint today so i went and visited a gallery owner friend of mine and ate grouper. best medicine around!

we'll see how it feels tomorrow and if the throbbing subsides but i read online that it could take weeks for the swelling and tenderness to go. i hope not. i need to get out three commissions and about fifteen paintings in the next three weeks.

today seems like a good day to announce the FREE PAINTING GIVEAWAY IS TODAY!

send me an email in the next three days with 'free painting' in the subject line and your mailing address in the body of the letter to register.

even the shipping is free! everybody is eligible (even you gallery owners)

this is the free painting

Electric Clouds- 8x6

Good Luck!!

Mr. Lyles Oyster Beds- 8x10

If you like this one email me

Will soon be at my new gallery on bald head island

Very hot and windy today and the humidity! on this one i was working on expressive brushwork, walking the tightrope between simple shapes but still having lots of interest. this is some of my favorite marsh grass i've ever painted. lots of variation up close and getting simpler and more horizontal as it goes back towards the horizon. used five or six greens up close. the values are pretty much the same but some greens have orange, magenta, yellow biases. i learn something every painting i do.

the reception at the opening of my two person show (with durham artist lisa creed) at new elements gallery in wilmington was packed, the 34 pcs i had hanging were well recieved and we all had a great time. thanks to everybody who showed up for moral support!

Just booked a workshop to teach in the shenandoah mountains august 25-27th.

i cant wait to get out of hot and steamy carolina to paint some mountain stuff. if you want to join me, email me and i'll give you the details. cost is $300 for the three days.

Urban Still Life and More

Fire Hydrant- 6x8

SOLD

saw this cool chrome painted fire hydrant today and had to paint it. wilmington just painted all the hydrants downtown and they immediately caught my eye today. i loved the way it reflected the cool sky and also the warmth of the sunlit brick all while in partial shadow. this made it quite a challenge because there wasnt a clear delineation of light and shadow on the brushed chrome. i just had to paint what i saw squinting and hope for the best.

Smith Creek Lunch Break- 9x12

SOLD

pulled off the shoulder of the road on a busy interstate in front of ILM airport to paint this creek scene. about the time i was finished the bird came and started looking for lunch in the shallows. Three people saw me around town painting and said "arent you the guy i saw painting on the side of the highway this morning?"

its amazing how i must stand out to people doing what i do. its not like you see a plein air painter everyday. i cant remember ever having seen one before i started doing it, so i guess i am a bit of a rarity.

I invite those in the wilmington nc area this month to stop by new elements gallery and see my show of all new paintings. i plan on having over 30 so there's quite a selection of subject matter and they run from loose, knifed, brushed, contemporary compositions, old school landscape, figurative, and still life.

and dont forget the free painting giveaway just days away. check back here daily to see the day to enter.

Demo- Seaview Pier- 12x16

heres the finished painting.

sorry for the glare in the right upper corner

today i'll show you how i mix some piles of color and lay in the approximate color.i look at my study and i mix some colors that are similar. i realize that i'm putting it on magenta but thats what gives it all harmony. all the shapes have the magenta in common. light shapes have a little because the wash was thin and probably dry to an extent. the dark shapes have more magenta and this warms up the dark and if you arent too thick or heavy handed with the shadow shape darks, you get neat warm, swirly, shapes within shapes. most beginning painters lay darks in heavy and opaquely. this causes what i call the black hole effect. shadows are full of color and multiple values. if you paint it real dark it looks like it was cut out and pasted on and lifeless. here you see the big shape piles of color i mixed up with the palette knife and i added a little half thinner and half linseed oil mixture to make the color go on thinner and easier than stiff and sticky.i got the pre-mixed palette technique from Frank Gardner a great painter who lives in mexico now painting. i found that premixing keeps painting down to doing one or two things at a time versus five or six.by premixing you nail down value and hue right off the bat. this way, now drawing is done, color and value is done and now you can paint to make the shapes closer to the study. i always put the study in a plastic sleeve so i can paint a dab of the premixed color on it so i can check its color and value. but just remember.....you can veer from your study if you want to. heck, you paid for the canvas. you can do anything you want.
here's what it looked like after thinly applying the pre-mixed colors. this is just to get something close down so i can tweak lighter, darker, cooler, warmer, less blue, more red, more saturated color, less saturated. painted this all with the large 1" brushes in the palette shot.
look closely at the differences in the shapes between this one and the one above. see how i've cooled and lightened the shadow of the pier on the sand. i also changed the color from magenta/violet and made it more realistic by loosely (and boldly with that huge brush) painting in a lighter grayed violet keeping the underpainting peeking out in places. i do this with all the shapes. tweaking this way and that. putting cool into warm shapes the same value and warm into cool shapes. i am still using a 1" brush on a 12x16.
i'm painting away when i realize that the drawing was off on the canvas when i drew it. i must have mismeasured something. anyway the pier was too low down from the horizon line and looked weird. i thought it was going to be a pain to change but it had to be done, so i scraped down to the canvas on the part that needed changing. it wasnt bad at all. go back up to the blockin and see how crazy that thing looked. very weird. glad i saw it before i was on the final pass or it would have been a little harder to correct.
i'm really happy with this one. i made some changes from the study that i like better on the big one and there are some things on the study i like better. thats almost always the way it is when i do a bigger one from a study. each painting is its own entity. they dont have to even look similar if you dont want it to. what i wanted to do on this one was have it look as loose as the study and have the same color harmony. i was actually a little looser on the big one, so i'm smiling at the end of this two and a half hour painting (and that was sneaking peaks at the Sopranos every once in a while)

this painting will be in the New Elements show starting this Friday.

Step by Step Demo

ive decided to do a detailed demo of how i take a plein air study and do a larger painting from it. the sequence will take a few days and will be pretty in depth. i love it when i see other artists do these demos and i thought you guys on here might like seeing one. artists and non-artists alike love to see how folks go about painting a painting. everybody seems to do it just a little bit different from everybody else. so here goes.

the first step is to get some lines on the new canvas after toning it all over with a magenta wash. then i take the magenta paint and draw the major lines. the small painting is a 6x8 study done on site so i can just measure where key lines start, end and intersect and double that measurement to go on the 12x16. in other words if the horizon line comes down two inches from the top on the study i'll measure down four inches. i do this with all the major shapes.

the next step is to see what the major darks are and paint them in straight magenta as a sort of simple monochromatic value study. this way i know whats in the shade and whats in the light. i feel very confident and tend to paint looser, and more authoritively when i feel like i have this value study working. i dont do any other color until i do. painting is about confidence as much as it is the other things we give more attention to.

tomorrow i'll show premixing the large shape colors and more.

dont forget the day for the free painting giveaway is soon upon you. keep coming back to see the day to enter. even the shipping is free! dont miss out.

Rainy Day Plein Airs

Riverfront Twin Towers- 8x6. for sale at New Elements in a week.

painted this up on a parking deck under an overhang with a blowing rain. water and oil dont mix so that didnt mess up the spots of water occassionally hitting the canvas.
on this one i tried real hard to keep things cool in the light and warm in the shadows. this is where the magenta underpainting can be used for that. use lots of magenta in the shadows and when you put on the dark shape it mixes and warms up the shadow. Geez why didnt i think of that a couple of years ago! *)

Reflective Cafe- 8x6. for sale in a week at New Elements show in Wilmington

sat with the paintbox in my lap on this one. figured out i'm too old to sit on concrete for an hour and a half and then try to stand up. man, i felt my age for sure. it was slowly raining and got some cool reflections in the street. i've wanted to paint this for a while and when i saw it reflected in the street today i had to do it. sat under an overhang out of the rain

people look at me like i'm crazy when they see me painting in the rain like this. maybe i am!but i love it

the giveaway contest for the free painting is almost at hand. get ready to enter by watching the blog daily.

Looking Out Over the White Oak- 8x10

snuck onto a waterfront property today to bang this one out. loved how the house was perched over this wonderful view. my problem the whole way through the painting is the value of the yellow house in shadow. this is my nemesis. of all the difficult things for me in this craft called painting its yellow houses in shadow. how to keep them the right value AND keep it colorful. any tips? please comment below... thanks. i struggled with this painting hard today. most are a joy to paint. not this one!

written about 20 minutes later:

i just took the digital photo over to photoshop and took all the color out of it (making it black and white) and saw that the side of the house is too light in value. maybe thats why i'm not liking this thing. i'm going to darken the value and repost this one tomorrow. hopefully it will do the trick and i wont hate this thing so bad.